Germany attacked Poland on September
1, 1939, and the United States began to expand its armed forces and build
defense plants and shipyards in preparation for war. On September 16,
1940, the Selective Service Act became law, and along with young men from
all parts of the nation, the young men at the Sanders mill villages began
to march off to war, singing the popular song "I'll be back in a year little
darling." Other village men took defense jobs in shipyards at nearby
New Orleans, Mobile, and Pascagoula. Still others moved to higher paying
railroad jobs at McComb, Meridian, Jackson, Vicksburg, and Memphis. The mass exodus at Magnolia
was initially offset, in a small way, by the arrival of several families
displaced by the Winona mill fire in 1940. Some of the family heads
included Clark Brooks, John Collier, Printiss Collier, Earl Hunsinger, Larry
Clough, Ernest E. Strickland, Lester (Monk) Strickland, Clarence Davis, Ike
Tindel, Culpert (Cup) Ivy, Charles Edwards, James (Jake) Thomas, and Everett
Lishman. Two years later the nearby McComb mill closed, providing
severaL more experienced textile workers. By this time, labor was in
short supply, and Sanders initiated free bus service at his mills; at Magnolia,
Selma Lamkin was employed as bus driver, to transport workers to and from
McComb. The fortuitous influx of experienced mill workers from Winona
and McComb provided relief, but it was evident that the never-ending line
of job applicants was gone for at least the duration of the war. With the coming of World
War II, the Mississippi textile industry and the Sanders cotton mills
in paticular began to change at a rapid pace. Workers were no longer
tied to the mill, and those who chose to stay, were protected by the Fair
Labor and Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) which established a minimum wage
of forty cents per hour (later changed to forty-five cents) to be achieved
through gradual steps by October 1945, and a standard forty-hour work week
by October 1942. Before the war, the 1938
wage and hour law had been a panacea for workers at the several Sanders
mills, but with the war the protective laws were of less importance.
Mill workers were suddenly in great demand as the military, defense plants,
shipyards, and railroads began to compete for manpower and offer alternatives
to the mill. For the first time, Sanders Indutries was confronted
with a diminishing labor force in the face of a booming economy.
It could no longer openly complain about the minimum wage and forty-hour
week law; but on the con- trary, it would not only honor the new law but
would have to make other concessions to attract and maintain an adequate
labor supply. For example, in addition to free bus transportation,
improvements would be made to village houses. Along with the critical labor
shortage, the war suddenly and unexpectedly thrust enormous production demands
upon the American cotton textile industry, including Sanders Industries.
Because of the war, England and Japan were no longer producing cloth for
international trade, and suddenly the United States "was almost the sole
supplier of textiles for the world." Aside from the civilian needs,
the quantity of cotton material needed by the military was staggering, cloth
for uniforms, bed sheets, tents, and parachutes for both American and Allied
ar-mies were but a few of the many items. The industry responded
by establishing all time production records which, according to Mildred
Gwin Andrews, was "one of the most remarkable feats in American industrial
history." With 11,000,000 fewer spindles than World War I,
the textile industry in World War II "handled 900,000 bales of cotton per
month against 500,000 bales in the first war." Like most American textile
mills, Sanders Industries contributed to the common cause by running all
of its mills twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. But at the
height of increased production demands Sanders, unlike most Southern mill
owners, continued to pay the legal minimum wage which ranged from forty
to forty-five cents per hour during the war years. Because of the
low wages, Sanders mills had difficulty attracting new employees, forcing
the mills to struggle shorthanded and resort to overtime to keep jobs running.
The overtime pay benefited the workers who were physically able and willing
to "double over" by working two consecutive shifts, but it failed to make
up for the low pay. The younger workers could move to higher paying
defense and railroad jobs, but many of the older workers were caught in
a web. With no special skills useful in other industries, most had
little choice but to stay in the mill regardless of the pay. Early in the 1940s, Sanders
Indus-tries could no longer ignore the poor condition of most of its mill
villages and it im- plemented upgrading programs at Magnolia, Kosciusko,
Starkville, and West Point. At Magnolia, for example, a program was
initiated to upgrade the village houses with a coat of paint and some minor
repairs. A crew of painters, headed by John Case, was employed full
time to paint the houses; the same colors were used throughout the village
as the exterior walls were sprayed with white paint and the porch floors
brush painted with gray. Carpenters, including Wilbur Quinn, Charles
and Otto McDaniel, were employed to make minor repairs to the older houses,
and near the end of the war, construct sev-eral new four-room houses.
The new houses had inside plumbing, and for the first time some of the village
houses had inside plumbing, and later in the forties, all houses were piped
for natural gas. At Magnolia, there was excitement
in the air as the painters moved from house to house with their spray
guns, painting village houses for the first time in almost a quarter of
a century. Then, in the late forties, the installation of natural gas
was greeted with even greater enthusiasm. Louise Rushing, a resident
of several decades, jokingly but proudly boasted, "Now, I'm cooking with
gas." Many young boys were thrilled because gas meant an end to the
dreaded job of chopping wood for the fireplace and kitchen stove. The paint, repairs, and gas
represented a giant step forward for the village peo-ple. But, there
was more; in the mid-forties mail delivery came to the village, and in the
late forties, the telephone. By the end of the forties, the village
was finally taking on the appearance of a middle-class community. Similar
programs were implemented at Kosciusko, Starkville, and West Point. The upgrading programs, however,
came late and lagged far behind the elaborate programs in the Piedmont
states. Beginning in the 1930s, mills in those states developed modern
villages with well-kept homes, landscaped grounds, paved streets, and sidewalks
which gave the communities a look of prosperity. Some had elaborate
community centers with swimming pools, theaters, bowling alleys, pool tables,
skating rinks, basketball facilities, and at least one had a golf course.
Speaking of the trend, Mildred Andrews notes in her book, The Men and The
Mills, that: Owners of mills and their
villages started installing indoor water and plumbing
in each home, replacing the one water spigot per block
and the backyard privy.... Electricity, as it was installed
in the mills, was added to village houses to
replace the kerosene lamps. ...The mill community, if
it borders a town, is a wel- come adjunct to the corporate
community. Its well- kept streets and homes give
an additional appearance of prosperity to a town.Sanders Industries never approached that level of
social consciousness at any time at any of its mill villages; it instead
simply applied a coat of paint and made some minor repairs to the village
houses. It is worth noting that the non-Sanders mill at Stonewall--Mississippi's
only surviving cotton mill-- upgraded its village in the 1930s, and it continues
to be a modern, well-maintained, and attractive mill town. On August 15, 1945, World
war II ended, and after the excitement subsided, Magnolia village men, who
had served in the military services, began to come home. Four young
men, however, had died in the service: James Robinson, Frank Dykes, James
Earl Davis, and Charles Edwards. An air of euphoria greeted the returning
veterans, no longer just mill workers but heroes of a sort. They
included James Alford, Clifton Lamkin, Charles Brooks, Ellis Vann, Thomas
Fancher, Jewel Rushing, John Will Vann Buskirk, William Sullivan, William
McCaskill, Ollie McCaskill, Cecil Foster, Archie Kuyrkendall, R. L. Kuyrkendall,
Clemon Bates, Halbert Chanell, Fred Sullivan, Wilfred Case, Betrand Pugh,
Paul Case, Robert Case, Laverne Case, Houston Parker, Hubert Parker, Wilbur
Logan, Robert Lucas, Robert Goff, James Lea, William (Billy) Phurrough,
and James (Jake) Thomas. Others returned from defense jobs, including
James Rushing, Roy Skipper, Leaton Randall, Felix Foreman, Clarence Davis,
and J. E. Hamilton. Like other Mississippians, servicemen and defense
workers from the village had seen for the first time a world of prosperity,
and they returned with a new vision and hope for the future. After World War II, the military
service continued to bea vehicle for escape for
young village boys. Most entered the Army, Air Force, Navy, or Marines
straight out of high school and, as events turned out, those who entered
the military service in the late forties and early fifties found themselves
caught up in the Korean War. The Magnolia group included the writer,
Robert Pezant, James Alton Rushing, Herbert Randall, Marvin Randall, Paul
Pezant, Pat Fuller, Trelles Case, Robert Sullivam, Charles Robinson, Pete
Hamilton, Stanley Strickland, William (Billy) Parker, Willie (Billy) Collins,
Robert (Bobby) Martin, Benny Channel, Robert Lamkin, James Sullivan, Cecil
Case, R. Gene Davis, Arlen Rushing, Brady Brooks, J. W. Brooks, Peyton Dickinson,
Cliftin Laddel (Billy) Anderson, Charles Davis, and Othaman (Man) Fuller.
The Kosciusko group included Bennie Ivey, Frank Shaw, James Chisam, James
Booth, Jimmie Fields, along with many others. That war too took its
toll as two of the Magnolia young men died in the service, Robert (Bobby)
Martin and Willie (Billy) Collins. Many of the village veterans
and defense workers returned to the mill, but it was temporary for most.
With the aid of the G. I. Bill of Rights, some pursued college degrees,
while others received technical training at nearby Southwest Mississippi
Junior College at Summit, Mississippi. Several became educators,
some established successful businesses, and a few became corporate executives. Actually, the quest for more
education began very early in the forties. After the war started,
the practice of Magnolia village children automatically taking mill jobs
at age sixteen stopped as more and more chose to finish high school and
attend college. Some of the early 1940s high school graduates were Bernice
Rushing, Virgie Fuller, Mildred Foreman, Clemon Bates, Geneva Channell, Brice
McComb, Jewel Case, William McCaskill, Opal Toney, Made-line McCaskill, Albert
McComb, Ollie McCaskill, James Earl Davis, Eva Rushing, Shirley Kuyrkendall,
Mary Bell Van Buskirk, Georgia Mae Van Buskirk, James Robinson, Laverne Case,
Ethelene Chanell, Fred Sullivan, Norma Chadwich, Halbert Chanell, and Janelle
Taylor. There were probably others. A few worked part time at night
in the mill while attend-ing school, but by the end of the war, most young
people concentrated on education and viewed the Sanders mill as a place for
summer or temporary employment only. Very few, if any, saw it as a
career; they were instead determined not to be tied to the mill for life. World War II and the 1940s,
as most historians agree, brought much of Mississippi into the mainstream
by introducing its people to the outside world and prosperity. The
village people at each mill town, along with the local country people and
town people, were among those who benefited. They had all struggled
together through the depression and war years, and they had all changed
together as they adopted a new vision of prosperity. By the end of
the war, the Sanders mills and villages did not fit into their new vision. Mill owners in the Piedmont
regions of the Carolinas and Georgia had upgraded their wage scales and
village houses to meet the competition and changing times. Sanders
Industries had fallen behind; it had continued to pay the minimum wage and
provide shoddy housing through most of the war years, particularly the village
housing at the small towns of Kosciusko, Mag- nolia, and West Point.
Its generosity stopped at providing each village household with a turkey for
Thanksgiving and a bag of fruit for Christmas, but it was too little, too
late. By the time the upgrading programs were initiated near the end
of the war, Sanders Industries had lost considerable control over its labor
force, and eventually, had difficulty attracting an adequate and dependable
labor supply at any of its mills. Other major problems confronted
the Southern textile in- dustry, including Sanders Industries, after the
war. Most of the machinery had operated for six years, almost non-stop,
and was worn out. It needed to be replaced with more modern equipment
and, in fact, retooling was essential in order to compete with new equipment
being installed in Europe under the Marshall Plan and in Japan under the
Supreme Command of Allied Powers. Modernization was costly,
in fact staggering. Historian Mildred Andrews estimates that the industry
spent, within five years after the war, more than one billion dollars on
modernization, renovation, and expansion. In addition, the American
textile industry was no longer the sole producer of textile goods, for
large textile establishments in Europe and Japan began to enter the international
marketplace. Japan's quick re-entry, with the latest in modern machinery,
dashed the hopes of the Southern textile industry. As noted by Patrick
Hearden, Southerners looked forward
to a revived export trade in the postwar years as predictions
abounded that it would be a long time before the
destroyed Japanese cotton in- dustry could fully recover.
Yet, to the surprise of many, Japan doubled its spindle
capacity between 1946 and 1951 by installing the most modern
equipment. As a result, southern textile exports
declined again, and Japanese im- ports into the United States
steadily increased. Coincident with the Japanese
industry gaining strength, the Mississippi textile industry, including
Sanders Industries and the Magnolia mill, found itself in a loosing struggle
for survival. In 1945 the Sanders mill at Meridian was closed, and
in 1952, the Alden Spinning Mill at Meridian went under. By this time,
the Mississippi cotton textile industry was reduced to six mills; four
operated by Sanders and two nonSanders mills at Laurel and Stonewall.
The four Sanders mills included Magnolia Textiles, J. W. Sanders Mills at
Starkville, Aponaug Mill No. 1 at Kosciusko, and Aponaug Mill No. 2 at West
Point. Early in 1953 Sanders closed
its Winona Chenille Plant and rumors began to circulate that the Magnolia
mill was a candidate to be either sold or closed. The rumors were
reinforced by the arrival of Paul Swink, who suddenly came in at a level
over Superintendent Claude McDade and assumed the management of the mill.
Swink immediately initiated cost cutting measures, including workload
increases reminiscent of the stretch-out sy- stem during the Depression
year, causing workers to compare him with G. M. Tidwell of that period.
Johnnie Carl Rushing, a doffer, recalls that his workload was doubled,
and that being unable to handle the increased workload, he was forced to
resign. He pleaded for other work, spinning, fixing, or sweeping,
but Swink insisted that he "handle both jobs or quit." The coup de
grace came when he was denied unemployment benefits on the strength of
Swink's statement that he had refused work available to him. By this time, the workers
suspected that the rumors were true--the end was near. The dreaded
news came on August 27, 1953, when Robert Sanders announced that on doctors
orders he was disposing of some of his holdings. He said, "I am cutting
my business down to my size, although I have no plans to retire fully at the
present time." Meeting with O. W. Phillips, the Magnolia mayor, in
his office, Sanders indicated that two plants were to be sold, the Magnolia
Textile Mill at Magnolia and the Aponaugh Manufacturing Company at Kosciusko.
His other enterprises, he said, would continue to operate. Mayor Phillips called on
C. K. Taylor, who had acted as agent in selling the Magnolia mill on three
occasions, to as- sist in finding a buyer who would be willing to keep the
mill open. Before a buyer was found, Sanders closed the mill in September
1953, exactly fifty years after it opened in 1903. Efforts to find
a buyer willing to reopen the Magnolia mill were unsuccessful. Near
the end of September, the Magnolia Gazette reported that the Sanders plants
at Magnolia, Starkville, Kosciusko, and West Point were sold to R. E. Dumas
Milner, a Jackson business man and industrialist, in one of the largest commercial
deals in the history of Mississippi. According to the Gazette: The machinery and inventories
of the four plants, Mag- nolia, Kosciusko, Starkville
and West Point, includes around 550,000 square feet
in buildings, 350 houses, about 500 acres of land other
than several million dol- lars worth of machinery and
equipment.Rather than the Magnolia and Kosciusko mills only,
Sanders had disposed of all of his cotton mills. The Gazette speculated that
the Magnolia mill would re- open, but that was not to be the case.
The Starkville mill operated under new owners until 1962, but the Sanders
mills at Kosciusko, Magnolia, and West Point remained closed. In January
1954, the 350 village houses at Kosciusko, Magnolia, Starkville, and West
Point were sold to a real estate and land company. The machinery
was sold and removed, and eventually most of the brick buildings were dismantled
and removed. Then, on September 25, 1954, Robert Sanders died in
Kosciusko, and, ironically, after suffering a heart attack while attending
a conference with local business leaders regarding the possible reopening
of the Kosciusko mill.
Most of the Mississippi cotton textile industry
died in 1953 with the closing of the Sanders mills. Only three mills
remained open; the Laurel mill survived until 1955, the Starkville mill until
1962, and today the only cotton manufacturing plant in the state is the
Stonewall Cotton Mill. Fortunately by 1953, Mississippi had finally
begun to move toward industrialization, and, as indicated earlier, most former
mill workers had moved on to higher paying jobs in industry, education, health
care, and some were on their way to becoming successful businessmen, corporate
executives, educators, and farmers. The Industrial Revolution
of the South, led by the southward movement of cotton textile mills beginning
in 1880, never really reached Mississippi. While cotton textile manufacturing
in Mississippi was extensive, it fell short of igniting an industrial
revolution, but James Wesson, Captain William Oliver, T. L. Wainwright, James
Sanders, Robert Sanders, C. K. Taylor, and a few other mill owners and executives
must be given credit for paving the way for the industrialization that
finally came with World War II and the 1940s. James Sanders and his son,
Robert, accumulated their conglomerate of Mississippi cotton textile mills
and kept indus- try alive during the difficult years of the 1920s and 1930s.
Although the Sanders moved the state closer to industrialization, they also
contributed to the demise of the Mississippi cotton textile industry which,
in turn, prevented or retarded potential growth in related industries.
While other factors may have contributed to the failure, Sanders clearly
failed to change with the times and upgrade their mills, villages, and pay
scale and, as a result, could no longer compete and attract a dependable
supply of labor. C. K. Taylor, remi-niscing in 1968 about the Sanders
cotton mills, noted: When he [Robert Sanders]
died all his mills in the state were closed and sold to 'undertakers'
who attempted to sell them. The mill
here [Magnolia] had one of the best locations I've ever seen
for getting together a hard-work- ing, harmonious crew.
But I guess Mississippi just didn't get into the textile industry
deeply enough to make it last.It was an appropriate eulogy for the Mississippi cotton
textileindustry, delivered by one of its most
devoted and knowledgeable promoters. The dazzling success of the
textile industry in the Piedmont states, along with the continuing success
of the Stonewall Cotton mill, suggests that the state could have done better.
Mississippi's failure to develop the industry obviouly benefited the Piedmont
states, particularly North Carolina and South Carolina where the textile
industry continued to dominate the manufacturing base in those states.
As late as 1970, textiles in South Carolina accounted for "57 percent
of all manufacturing jobs" in the state, and a decade later in North Carolina,
"despite the growth in other industries, the industry still provided over
30 percent of all manufacturing jobs in the state." Mississippi's
Stonewall mill, at the time of this writing, is undergoing another major
expansion program and the mill town has the appearance of a prosperous middle-class
community. Ironically, the failure of
Sanders Industries may have bene-fited its mill workers. Like most
Mississippians, Sanders mill workers did change with the times; they tasted
prosperity, liked it, and were determined to move to better things.
As an example, with the closing of the Magnolia mill, a few of the workers
remained in the area to find a better life, and a few moved on to cotton
mills as far away as Sand Springs, Oklahoma and McKinney, Texas. But,
as indicated earlier, most moved on to higher paying jobs in industry, education,
health care, andagriculture; several became educators, some established
successful businesses, others established successful farms, and a few
became corporate executives. Similar accomplishments were repeated
by former Sanders mill workers at Kosciusko, Meridian, Starkville, and
West Point. Their successes were substantial
and proved that, after all, the village people as a group were typical
of Mississippians in general; there was little difference between their
background, customs, and education and that of the average farmer, mechanic,
policeman, teacher, storekeeper, and other Mississippians. They had
all lived together during the same hard times, the same good times, in the
same general environment, and most shared the same advantages and the same
disadvantages. There should have been no surprises; their successes
were predictable. At Magnolia, the little Nazarene
Church, like the village people, persevered through it all. Sixty-seven
five years af- ter the arrival in 1931 of the two Nazarene evangelists,
Miss Dell Smith and Miss Jonnie Dance, it continues to hold services on
the corner of First and Price Streets. Every two years it sponsors
a reunion, and former village people come from far and wide to see old friends
and reminisce about the good times. For many of the old timers, it borders
on being a pilgrimage: they all agree that, after all, it was a "good life
tempered with a bit of hard times to build character." At Kosciusko, a similar reunion
is held annually for its former mill workers.

BIBLIOGRAPHYBOOKS

Andrews, Mildred Gwin. The Men and the Mills: A History of theSouthern Textile Industry. Macon, Ga.: Mercer UniversityPress, 1988.

Blicksilver, Jack. Cotton Manufacturing in the Southeast: AnHistorical Analysis. Atlanta: Bureau of Business and
Economic Research, Georgia State College of Business
Administration, Bulletin 5, July 1959.

Burke, James. Connections. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1978.

Brooks, Eugene Clyde. The Story of Cotton and the Developmentof the Cotton States. New York: Rand McNally and Company,1911.

Carlton, David L. Mill and Town in South Carolina 1880-1920.Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1982.

Cash, W. J. The Mind of the South. New York: A. A.Knopf, 1941.

Chamberlain, John. The Enterprising Americans: A Business History of the United States. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1961.

Clark, Victor S. History of Manufacturing in the United States.3 vols. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1929.

Green, Marcellus. "Biography of Joshua Green for the Mississippi Historical Society of Mississippi." Typescript heldby the Mississippi Department of Archives and History atJackson, Miss.

Haskins, Ralph W. "Planter and Cotton Factor in the Old South:Some Areas of Friction." Agricultural History 29 (1955):1-14.

Hunt's Merchants' Magazine 15 (1846): 417; 17 (1847): 323.

Mitlin, Luceille Listen. "The Historical Development of LandUse in Starkville, Mississippi, A Small University City."Master's thesis, Mississippi State University, 1975. Copyheld by Mitchell's Library at Starkville, Miss.

Murchison, Claudius T. "One-Fourth of a State Sold for Taxes."Literary Digest CXIII (May 7, 1932): 10.

Works Projects Administration. Mississippi: a Guide to theMagnolia State. The Federal Writers' Project of the FederalWorks Agency. New York: Hastings House, 1938.

______________. Mississippi, Attala County, The FederalWriters' Project of the Federal Works Agency. Microfilmcopy held by the Mississippi Department of Archives
and History at Jackson, Miss.

______________. Mississippi. Lownes County, The FederalWriters' Project of the Federal Works Agency. Microfilmcopy held by the Mississippi Department of Archives and
History at Jackson, Miss.

____________________________. Mississippi. Montgomery County, The
FederalWriters' Project of the Federal Works Agency.
Microfilmcopy held by the Mississippi Department
of Archives and History at Jackson, Miss.

______________. Mississippi, Pike County. The Federal Writers'Project of the Federal Works Agency. Microfilm copy held
bythe Mississippi Department of Archives and History
at Jackson, Miss.

Narvell Strickland was born in Tupelo,
Mississippi and has personal knowledge of the Mississippi textile industry,
growing up on mill villages at Tupelo, Winona, Kosciusko, Meridian, and
Magnolia in the late thirties and early forties. He received a Bachelor
of Arts degree in Political Science from Roosevelt University in Chicago,
a Masters of Arts degree in History at Southeastern Louisiana University,
and a J.D. Degree in Law from combined studies of four years at John Marshall
College of Law in Chicago and one year at Northwestern California University. Mr. Strickland was Director
of Labor Relations for the Illinois Central in Chicago from 1957 to 1971;
he was then appointed General Manager in New York, Eastern Sales, by the
railroad and remained in that position until he retired. In August
1994, he was appointed by the National Mediation Board to its list of Labor
Arbitrators and Mediators. He is listed in "Who's Who in American
Railroading, 1982" and has been an active member of several transportation,
industry, and trade organizations.

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